1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system, printing apparatus, and preview method for the printing system and, more particularly, to a printing system, printing apparatus, and preview method for the printing system for displaying a list of pages of a document as reduced images.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has conventionally been proposed a display system having a user interface which allows the user to feel an overview of the page structure of a document, the contents of each page, and the like (see, e.g., Japanese Patent No. 3,769,868).
Many display systems have proposed a method of storing image data representing a document for each page, reducing the stored image data to fit it in a segment for reduction display, and selecting the reduced image of a corresponding page to display it.
The conventional methods are discussed with reference to FIGS. 25 to 29.
FIG. 25 is a view showing an example in which the reduced image of a longitudinally long-sized page becomes a line, degrading visual perceptibility.
Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 25, when displaying a list of pages of a document as reduced images, a predetermined segment is prepared, and a page is enlarged/reduced to fit it in the segment. If the reduction ratio is high when displaying the reduced image of a longitudinally long-sized page, the reduced image of the longitudinally long-sized page becomes a line, and the user cannot grasp the contents of the page.
FIG. 26 is a view showing an example in which the reduced images of a document with greatly different page sizes are displayed, degrading the visual perceptibility of the reduced image of a small-sized page.
As shown in FIG. 26, if the size is greatly different between pages, like A0 and A4 sizes, when displaying a list of pages of a document as reduced images, the image of a small-sized page becomes excessively small. As a result, the user cannot grasp the contents of the page.
FIG. 27 is a view showing an example in which the reduced images of both portrait and landscape pages are displayed, degrading the visual perceptibility of the reduced image of either image.
As shown in FIG. 27, when displaying the reduced images of a document containing both portrait and landscape pages in displaying a list of pages of the document as reduced images, the image of either page is excessively reduced. As a result, the user cannot grasp the contents of the page.
FIG. 28 is a view showing an example in which no sufficient blank is set between display areas for displaying a reduced image, degrading visual perceptibility.
As shown in FIG. 28, if no sufficient blank is set between display areas when displaying a list of pages of a document as reduced images, the visual perceptibility of the reduced images degrades.
FIG. 29 is a view showing an example in which the reduced image of longitudinally long-sized image data is displayed, failing in visually perceiving the contents of the image data.
Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 29, when displaying a list of image data as reduced images, a predetermined segment is prepared, and image data is enlarged/reduced and fit in the segment. In this case, the user might not be able to grasp the contents of the image data from the reduced image.